patrick.net

Did you ever wonder why cities have been cities for hundreds of years and not turned in to villages.

For a place to produce things you need : information exchange and transportation of goods between various units of production. distance increases the delay for both these and thus clustering of the various units of production naturally happens as its the most efficient way to produce something (resulting in cities )
information exchange is now becoming independent of distance due to significant innovation in information technology but transportation of goods is still distance based.
most of the jobs in bay area are information based and do not need transportation of goods so we will be most affected due to outsourcing in future.

yeah this is what i was thinking too. There are colleagues who tell me that they might move to Austin because there Dollar would go much further there, so there are some other pockets in country where you have lot of technology jobs and houses cost much lesser. So this recession would definitely cause some people to look elsewhere.

homeowner_for ever_san jose says

most of the jobs in bay area are information based and do not need transportation of goods so we will be most affected due to outsourcing in future.

Geographic co-location is far more important for software companies than it is for other industries. Our jobs are a constant exchange of ideas.

I'm leaning heavily towards relocating to the seattle area, and the number one concern that I have about the move is that I will be working at a distributed office rather than at our headquarters. This means I will most likely not be working on the most interesting projects, nor will I have access to the same range of co workers.

Anyone else moving/moved out of the Bay Area? Any success stories to share?

It is normal.

flipper12345usa says

Anyone else moving/moved out of the Bay Area? Any success stories to share?

I close friend of mine from High School got married four years ago, and upon the birth of his first child (one year later) moved to Pittsburgh (PA, not CA). His wife did not want to work while they had young kids in the house and they decided that it was impossible for them to have an acceptable standard of living in the Bay Area on a single income. He was lucky because his company had an office there for him to transfer to so he only took a small pay cut. They now own a nice house (huge by Bay Area standards, normal in the Midwest). I saw him at a wedding a few months ago and they miss their friends and the weather but are very happy.
I think once you have a family and become a homebody most of the advantages of living in CA disappear.

moving out of bay area is slightly easier for american citizens.
For most immigrants ( like east indians), bay area offers certain ethnic related things which are difficult to get else where.
Also , for dual income house holds, both losing a job and getting it back in the same place is easier in bay area compared to other places.

I moved back to the BA recently after living on the Central Coast and southern NM for several years - I rented in 2 States simultaneously.

Tomrisk:

It cost me $10k to come back to Cali. Atlas VanLine movers (they are the only ones who do a background and citizenship check on all employees including the movers/packers - no illegals and no green-carders), additional rental of a Budget 14-foot moving truck (20% discount avail through the USPS Moving Packet avail in all Post Offices), mid-priced hotels for 3 days, first month's rent, security deposit, utility set-ups with AT&T, internet, PG&E, water, etc.

Flipper12345usa:

I made a lot of posts on thehousingbubbleblog re living and renting costs in the sw part of NM as well as my observations re west TX and southern AZ (Tucson). Not sure if Ben has a search on there for username, however, my username here is the same as that site, so you could check that out.

I will give you a small summary though - in 2007 A LOT of cars with FL plates headed west to AZ and CA (presumably) from FL due to the meltdown there which is worse than here in Cali. Tucson has imploded as has most areas of Scottsdale like DC Ranch/Troon Ranch, which became during the run-up, an outpost for assorted trash and skanks. What a surprise for those who bought in thinking that it was different because its "Scottsdale." I was last in AZ in May and things are subdued to say the least.

Many younger professionals simply do not want to live in the Bay Area due to its high cost of living for housing. This area just does not hold the same appeal for GenXers and the Millennials as it did for Boomers. Unfortunately, Boomers still think that the BA is still THE place to live and have invested themselves and their wallets into an area that lacks the same luster as in the past when they moved here.

For those Californians (real natives, not transplants from somewhere else) who are thinking of moving out-of-State:

You will get homesick. It will be rough getting used to the lack of consumer protection laws, flakey law enforcement ("You don't expect us to do anything, do you?" - actually stated to me by a sheriff's officer in NM). No Trader Joe's, obese people in numbers like you've never seen before unless you're moving to CO,
the same Real Estate Agent cr@p where they price housing above local wages - just enough to bring about "bleed factor." Tacky hair salons I wouldn't trust in any way shape or form. Bad roads, frustrating government, incredibly incompetent legal community with lots of "buddy system" politiking going on - just like any other 3rd world country.

if you can avoid all this, you'll do OK.

One thing: housing is cheaper in other States reason being that you end up spending a lot of time indoors due to the weather.

~Misstrial

Personally I would love to move to a location where I could own a relatively new house for, say, 400K in an area as rich with software development jobs as the SFBA is, nice demographics, and a temperate climate. But I am still not even sure there are comparable areas. And personally I do not see my acquaintances moving out. In addition, I know quite a few people from out of state who are planning to go to Silicon Valley once they can (e.g. sort out their immigration affairs).

If you think about it, the climate here is truly exceptional (especially in comparison with TX, WA and other high-tech alternatives) despite the looming water shortages. I heard this summer in Austin they had about 40 (sic!) days of triple-digit temperatures. Not to mention all the snakes and such. Seattle means as many cloudy or downright rainy days as we have sunny ones, it snows in CO, NC's research triangle is in the middle of nowhere, NYC is insanely huge, Chicago is cold&windy and so on.

Judging from RE prices the market has apparently decided that the SFBA is optimal. And the very same prices seem to be the only real problem because there are very good public schools in towns with decent demographics (at least in the East Bay).

Another theory I heard is that it's all about the VCs. Startups move to where they live and most VCs prefer this area. So unless they move the jobs are likely to stay.

Nick you mentioned Austin TX. lol
I could always tell the Californian Austin drivers on the 10 fwy from the other Texans because the Cali ones kept their Californian-locale license plate frame. lol

I kept my Cali license plates of course since that's the State of my legal residency - so the Cali TX drivers would slow down around me as a show of cameraderie - lol :)

Believe me, when you are a real Californian (not someone who moved here from somewhere else) and you have to move out-of-State, one of the FIRST things you do is try to find other Californians and where do they shop, hang, hike, walk, whatever....heck even in Austin they have a section of town called "Little California" where many Californians live.

But yeah, Austin is hot hot hot and triple-digits is common in the summertime. I've been told to expect a/c bills of $250/mo and higher if you have a pet that needs the a/c on when you're at work - some as high as $900/mo for a/c 24/7 in the summertime.

TX also has high property taxes (Texas aka "Taxes") and some homeowners from El Paso have moved to Anthony, NM (which is across the street since Anthony is right on the border of TX and NM) to retain their TX identity but live in a low property tax State.

~Misstrial